


Winter Bones

by kerrykhat



Category: Criminal Minds, Warehouse 13
Genre: Gen, mentions of serial killers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9252548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerrykhat/pseuds/kerrykhat
Summary: “Crap, the feds are here already,” Claudia muttered to Steve, peering out through the window of their rental.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "non sequitur" for [](http://tamingthemuse.livejournal.com/profile)[tamingthemuse](http://tamingthemuse.livejournal.com/).

**Title:** Winter Bones  
 **Rating:** PG-13  
 **Summary:** “Crap, the feds are here already,” Claudia muttered to Steve, peering out through the window of their rental.  
 **Disclaimer:** CBS owns "Criminal Minds" and all related characters; SyFy owns "Warehouse 13" and all related characters; I own nothing.  
 **Warning:** Mentions of serial killers  
 **Author's Note:** Written for the prompt "non sequitur" for [](http://tamingthemuse.livejournal.com/profile)[**tamingthemuse**](http://tamingthemuse.livejournal.com/).

“Crap, the feds are here already,” Claudia muttered to Steve, peering out through the window of their rental.

“How do you want to play this?” he asked, putting the car into neutral and glancing over at the tell-tale black SUVs. “And which feds are we talking about?”

“From what I can tell,” Claudia answered, typing something on her computer, “shortly after we got the ping, the local police called in the FBI’s BAU team. Because Artie refuses to listen to my excellent suggestion of a private jet, they beat us here.”

“Great,” Steve said, making a face.

“My thoughts exactly.”

They were currently in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the trail of an artifact that was allowing somebody to convince women to go with him. Unlike Mata Hari’s stockings, however, the artifact had landed in the hands of somebody less community minded. This person, instead of using the artifact to give money to charity, was convincing the women to go off with him, and then he’d torture and kill.

Even Pete, who’d seen some awful stuff, had looked green over the Farnsworth when they’d touched base with him and Myka.

“Are we sure the artifact is seducing the women, and not involved in the torture or killing?” Steve asked Claudia, still eyeing the SUVs.

“Yeah, but we could be wrong. Not like that hasn’t happened before.”

“Well, there aren’t any victims we can talk to, so I guess that leaves the crime scenes,” Steve mused aloud, turning his attention back to his partner. “Any leads?”

“Just the scenes,” Claudia answered, shutting her laptop. “I can hack into their files, but I want to get a better idea of what we could be dealing with. Work for you, Jinksy?”

“Sure. Where’s the latest one?”

Claudia pulled up the directions on her phone, and soon they found themselves at a house close to the UMass Amherst campus.

“The last victim, Vivian Lester, was taken here on her way back from a late night class,” Claudia explained, getting out of the car. In her hand was one of her new artifact detecting devices. They’d started giving it some test runs with the more benign artifacts back at the Warehouse, but this was its first field run. “One of her neighbors saw something, or at least that’s what the report says.”

“I’ll talk to her then if you want to use your doo-dad and see if it pings anything.”

“Doo-dad. Sounds very scientific there, Jinksy.”

Claudia wandered around the block, holding the device in front of her and keeping a wary eye out. There was nothing to that indicated that the guy came back to his snatch and grab locations, but this was just creepy. She was about halfway around when Steve jogged up to join her.

“Not there,” he explained when Claudia raised her eyebrow at him. “Any luck?”

“Not yet. It might just’ve been too long since the artifact was used,” Claudia sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Well, figure it out quick, because we got company,” Steve pointed out, looking over Claudia’s shoulder. Claudia turned around and was greeted by the sight of tall, bald, and black with his companion of skinny, white, and nerdy coming out of a black SUV. They immediately set sights on the two agents and started walking towards them.

“Play it cool, bro,” Claudia muttered, nudging Steve in the side and slipping the device into her pocket.

“You play it cool,” he shot back, giving the two men a friendly smile.

“Hi, I’m Agent Morgan and this is Dr. Reid. We’re here with the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit to look into the recent string of murders. Would you mind answering a few questions?”

“Actually, we’re not from around here,” Steve answered, giving Claudia a fond grin. “My…sister is looking at universities, but I’m not quite feeling this one. I think it might be the murders.”

“I can understand that,” Agent Morgan answered, his eyes hidden behind a pair of aviator glasses. “So how long have you been in the area?”

“Just got in today,” Claudia answered, giving the FBI the best smile that she could muster up. She could guess why Steve was lying: while he might be able to explain why he as an ATF agent was there, her lack of agent-ness was a different problem.

“So you’re just in the area looking around?” Morgan asked again, looking between the two of them. His buddy still hadn’t said a word.

“Yeah, just trying to get a sense of the place,” Steve answered, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

In her pocket, Claudia could feel the device start to buzz. Crap. That meant that the artifact had been here lately. Unfortunately, there was no way to let Steve no that without the buddy cop duo giving her funny looks. Well, there might be one way…

“Fudge!” Claudia blurted out, interrupting Morgan’s follow-up question. Feeling everybody’s attention on her for her apparent non sequitur, she continued, giving Steve a smile. “I smell fudge. Just like Uncle Artie likes to make. I’m sorry, it’s just… he hasn’t been himself lately, and that smell just reminds me of how things used to be.” She could feel tears prick her eyes, and to her surprise, they were real. He had been acting un-Artile like since Sykes, but he’d been avoiding her like the plague.

“Hey, it’s OK, Clauds. We can go back to our hotel and give him a call,” Steve replied, giving her shoulder an understanding squeeze. “Do you mind? It’s just a hard time for us, and with Claudia getting ready college…”

“I get it,” Morgan said, fishing his phone out of his pocket. “Can I just get your phone number so we can get in touch if we have any questions?”

Claudia waited until Steve had finished exchanging numbers before walking back to the car.

“Fudge?” Steve asked as they got in.

“I had to get your attention somehow,” Claudia shrugged, buckling her seatbelt. “So, call Artie?”

“Yeah. And we can probably expect a call from those feds. I don’t think they bought the visiting college story.”

“That’s a problem for another time,” Claudia said, pulling out her Farnsworth. “Let’s call home, touch base, and figure out our next move that doesn’t end up with our asses in federal prison.”


End file.
